Recent advances in gastrointestinal hormones]

Recent advances in the field of peptide chemistry and gene technology have resulted in an explosive accumulation of information on the chemical structures of gastrointestinal hormones. Based on the information, chemical syntheses of these peptides or their shorter fragments and analogs have been performed. Synthetic peptides related to the hormones have now become important tools in searching for functions of peptides and in producing region-specific antisera to the respective peptides. Using these antisera, hormone-producing cells were clearly identified and the post-translational biosynthetic processings in the cells were demonstrated. Recent immunohistochemical studies have also revealed that cells contain and can release a variety of peptides or amines that are capable of influencing target cells and acting as hormone, neurotransmitter or neuromodulator. In addition, recent studies on galanin and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) are described.